Exporting to print ready .pdf

[dbtr]

Hi community!

I've been working on a file I intend to print in the future. I've started the document with the Print type, A4 page using CMYK/8 and U.S Web Coated (SWOP) v2. I've completed the file and now exporting it to a print ready .pdf and I'm facing some questions. The following colours are the ones I expect to see when printed:

However, when I export it to .PDF (Print) and open the same .pdf it gives me these colours (don't mind the quality, I've been trying many options, this one I enabled rasterise all):

 

So what can I do the achieve those exact colors when I print the file?

EDIT: This seems to be a subject to learn so if you know of any useful guides or tutorials around this please don't hesitate to throw them at me!

Thank you for your time!

[MikeW]

Without a file to look at, kinda hard to say why there's a color shift. 

 

In general a color shift occurs when a designer uses RGB to color elements and the destination is CMYK. Another cause can be designing for one color profile and outputting to another profile. 

 

Mike

[O. Chevetaigne]

16 minutes ago, MikeW said:

Without a file to look at, kinda hard to say why there's a color shift. 

 

In general a color shift occurs when a designer uses RGB to color elements and the destination is CMYK. Another cause can be designing for one color profile and outputting to another profile. 

 

Mike

 

Mike,

 

When a designer is creating an image that is primarily intended to exist as a print document, should he/she use CMYK colour format from the get-go?

 

 

[MikeW]

For me it depends but in general for vector art or elements, yes. I do leave continuous tone images as rgb in general. 

[Mithferion]

I made a little test and my settings were the following:

 

Best regards!

[kaffeeundsalz]

Another aspect to consider is: What application do you use to view the exported PDF? I know many PDF viewers that aren't capable of accurately displaying CMYK colors, so this too can be a reason you're not seeing the colors that you expect. As you said before, a flawless color management workflow can be hard to achieve because there are many possible pitfalls along the way. In this case, pay close attention to using the same CMYK profile for both the Affinity Designer document and the exported PDF.

[MikeW]

Affinity Designer will accurately create a pdf when cmyk is used for elements when exporting to a cmyk pdf when the document profile and pdf profile match. The same is true when a document is designed in rgb and the same rgb profile is used for output. Any other output condition used that differs from the document profile will cause a conversion.

 

How much difference there is depends on the colors used. So if rgb is used that cannot be represented in cmyk there will be a definite color shift, more so as one uses rgb further away from cmyk's gamut. Color shift can/will also occur when going from the document cmyk profile to a different cmyk profile (along with ink densities).

 

Accurate color can only be assessed using Acrobat and pdfToolbox and their color inspection tools. Visual comparison can also be done using Adobe Reader. Other pdf readers may not be truly color managed and most will not accurately represent transparency and overprint conditions.